big O notation

English

Etymology

From the capital letter O (short for order, originally German Ordnung) used in the notation.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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Noun

big O notation (uncountable)

1. (mathematics, computing theory) A particular notation, useful in the analysis of algorithms, which describes the limiting behavior of a function when the argument tends towards a particular value or infinity, usually in terms of simpler functions.

See also

• time complexity

Further reading

• big O notation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia